Jæja fyrsta kvöld Airwaves búið, ég og Hjölli mættum og sáum ansi margar hljómsveitir í gær, enda frekar þreyttur í dag. Þetta var nú í rólegra lagi í gær, enda Hjölli slasaður eftir konuna sem hann hitt í Kringlunni. En við ætluðum að mæta um 20.00 á Grandarann en ég var eitthvað þreyttur og seinn af stað þ.a. ég var kominn til Hjölla rétt um 21.00 og fórum við beint á Nasa þar sem við sáum Brúðarbandið, sjö stelpur í brúðarkjólum að spila pönkrokk. Fyrsta lagið sem við heyrðum var einmitt Sid Vicious is so delicious en það er einmitt í spilun þessa dagana í útvarpi og sjónvarpi.
?Seven wonderful ladies - Melkorka, Sigga, Sunna, Eygló, Unnur, Gugga and Kata - decided to form a band in late 2003. A bold manifesto was written, where they demand more punk rock, free drinks at the bar, more groupies and pink water in swimming pools, to name a few things. They claim they won't wait till tomorrow and that they already are a part of the future! Brúðarbandið always perform in wedding dresses, which is quite a sight to behold. Although the instrument playing skills of some of the members is a bit dodgy (it has improved a lot with every passing performance), that tiny problem is by far outweighed by their absolute joy of playing, solid songwriting and unspeakable amounts of attitude and giddiful mischief. With a number of live performances they have taken the Icelandic media by storm, appearing in every single news paper, radio/tv show and publication imaginable in just a few months. Their music is a storming wall of sound, thanks to a large number of members and instruments (vocals, 2 guitars, bass, drums, keyboards and accordion). Their musical influences are not easily pinned down, although several punk bands (Stanglers, Buzzcocks, etc.) can be spotted here and there, in between the genre-defying accordion solos.?

Ég var mjög hrifinn af þessum stúlkum, þ.e. tónlist þeirra, minnti mig svolítið á Rokk í Reykjavík, þ.e. lagasmíð og tónlist þeirra. Gef þeim hiklaust 7 af 10 fyrir þetta. Næst ákváðum við skella okkur á Grand Rokk og horfa á þétt rokk, en áður en það var gert var haldið stutt á Gaukinn og séð Cell 7 ? hip hop gella.

Ragna aka Cell7 a native born emcee who emerged with the first Icelandic hip-hop band Subterranean in 1998. Their first album Central Magnetizm was well received by the public and sold out quickly. In the same year the band was voted the most promising band at the Icelandic Music Awards. Subterranean opened for several artists such as: The Fugees, De La Soul and The Gravediggaz, just to name a few.
In 2000 Ragna moved abroad to New York to pursue an education in business management and audio recording. At the end of summer 2004 she returned back to Iceland and is currently working on her first solo album.
Dj Big Gee will be performing with her at The Icelandic Airwaves 2004. Big Gee has been dj-ing for over 10 years and has participated in several Dj-competitions. Recently winning last years Icelandic Dj-competition. He has had the pleasure of opening for such artists as DJ Craze, Raekwon from the Wu-Tang Clan, Kashal-Tee and Loop Troop.
Þetta var nú reyndar betra en við bjuggumst við, rappað ofan á flottar melódíur og var stúlkan bara ansi góð, enskan var mjög góð og þetta var nokkuð professionalt hjá henni. Ég gef henni hiklaust 6 af 10 og er það nokkuð hátt miðað við hip hop þar sem undirritaður er ekki mikill hip hoppari. Eftir nokkur lög þarna skelltum við okkur á Grand rokk og sáum Nevolution og Changer ? þetta var Trash Metal af hæsta gæðaflokki, sérstaklega fannst mér Changer góðir. Söngvarinn var skemmtilegur þar. Nevolution:
In December 2004 members of the band Anubis decided that Anubis's time had passed and it was time to do something new. nevolution was founded by three original Anubis members, Gunnar Sigurður Valdimarsson (guitar), Heimir Ólafur Hjartarson (vocals and bass) and Ágúst &Örn Pálsson (drums) and was joined by Jakob Jónsson (actually also a former Anubis member from way back).
Only after a few weeks of work, Ágúst decided to leave the band because of his serious mental condition. He was shortly after that replaced by Heiðar Brynjarsson. With Heiðar in the band and Davíð Hólm Júlíusson at their side, they stated recoding four songs for promotion in January 2004
Changer:
A vocalist thinking he is Björk?s and Rob Zombie?s love child,A drummer looking like a Muppet Show reject but with an ego the size of Hallgrímskirkja A guitar par who have probably nothing in common, musically or personally, other than, well, playing guitars in the same band.And bass player who really doesn?t give damn about anything that goes on in the band.You could say tension is a ruling factor in Changer
Starting as a small solo project of drummer Kristjan in 1999 and becoming a fully manned screaming noise machine in 2001 Changer has kept quite busy playing both at local gigs with local bands and supporting foreign act like Mastodon (USA) Shai Hulud (USA) Amon Amarth (SWE) 27 (USA) Instil (NL) and Urkraft (DK) And independently made 3 studio recordings, January 109 LP (2000) Inconsistency EP (2001) and Scenes LP (2004)
And the future seems bright for Changer, as material for a new LP is well on the way and a possible US and Europe tour early next year.
"...probably the metal outfit most likely to succeed is Changer, who bring a dizzying blend of System Of A Down's unpredictability and vocal freakouts with admirable riffing bludgeon and ceaselessly inventive structural carnage on their promising self-released effort, "Scenes"" -Terrorizer-
?Changer?s knack is writing crushing songs that have hooks and originality, and that?s a lot more than you can say for the majority of metalcore coming out through Stateside labels...? - Maelstrom Webzine-
?Vocally, I?d say singer, Magnus sounds like a cross between Al Jourgenson on ?Jesus Built My Hotrod? and Aphex Twin?s ?Come To Daddy?. Actually, track ?Go On? reminds me of the infamous ?Berzerker? song in Kevin Smith?s film, ?Clerks?. Pretty scary stuff!? - Live 4 Metal Webzine -
Eins og sést á textanum um Changer þá sjáið þið af hverju ég vildi endilega fara á þessa tónleika, sérstaklega síðasta setningin. En þarna reyktum við Hjölli samanlagt einn pakka af sígó sem second hand smoking og fyrri bjór kvöldsins var drukkinn. Eftir einn pakka af sígó og Changer búinn þá ákváðum við að færa okkur um set og skella okkur á Þjóðleikhúskjallarann. En fyrst vil ég nefna að ég gef Neovolution 6 af 10 og Changer 7 af 10 í einkunn. Þétt Trash Metal, Dauða Skullfokk rokk. Nú á kjallaranum sáum við nú það sem kom einna mest á óvart en það voru hljómsveitirnar Bacon+Live Support Unit og Funk Harmony Park. Bacon:
Bacon // Live Support Unit was invented in the year of 2004 with the simple intention of redefining life as one knows it. This band is a coverband. Covering exclusively the works of Bacon (formed at an earlier point in history). The members of this groupband play instruments and occationally other objects of artistic sub-functionality. While including the two members of Bacon (4) and covering only Baconettes, the bandgroup, in its approach, sheds a new rockhaze lightning on the somewhat more elektropsychotik original versions. Currently the bandband focuses on pieces from the albums Krieg, Jenny and Kamel, wich at this point are being pushed from shore in courtesy of the Babarclub and will be available soon in a record store near the RodentMaster.


Funk Harmony Park:
Funk Harmony Park was formed in 2001 by 2 induviduals, Roofuz and Elvis2. First they began experimenting with hip-hop and trip-hop ideas. In the summer of 2003 Protokol joined the band and the trio was born.
After the apperance on Iceland Airwaves 2002 they got a lot of attention as a trip-hop band with a bright future. In the beginning of the year 2003 Mr.Minute joined the ranks ofFunk Harmony Park and the quartet was complete. With Mr.Minutes arrival the style changed and Funk Harmony Park began moving more towards ?club? music.
All music made by Funk Harmony Park is a collaborative effort of these four individuals.They find their common ground in dance music according to their vision of how such music should be. In October 2003 Funk Harmony Park released their Debut "Essence" (EP)After it´s release it got voted the 2nd best Icelandic album of the year in the most respected and succesfull radio show: PartyZone.
Essence got regular radio coverage in Scandinavia and is sold out. Funk Harmony Park have been playing on the Icelandic Airwaves festival since 2002, as well as playing in the Icelandic clubscene for the past 2 years
Við komum reyndar í lokin á Baconinu og sáum bara 3-4 lög, en það voru mjög skemmtilegur fílíngur í þeim, instrumental tónlist falin á bak við tjald, flottur hljóðfæraleikur með fullt af hljóðfærum, brass og alles. Gef þeim 6 af 10. En svo komu Funkararnir, en það var almennilegt, helvíti flott trip hop, techon, ambient fílingur í þessu með gítarleikara með sér. Ég var rosalega hrifinn af þessu og skemmti mér stórvel yfir þessu og annar bjórinn sötraður með þessu öllu. Ég gef þeim hiklaust 8,5 af 10 þar sem ég var djö.... ánægður með þetta. Eini gallinn við þetta var að þetta var mjög stutt og svo voru þeir með lítið ungt gimpi sem dansaði allann tímann á sviðinu og ég skil ekki hvað hann var að gera þarna annað en að líta asnalega út, þetta hefði verið jafnvel flottara án hans. Dansfífl eins og ég kallaði hann í gær. En þar sem við vorum svo vígreifir eftir þetta techno þá ákvaðum við að skella okkur á smá Drum og Base kvöld á Kapital en þar var stemning sem maður myndi fíla eftir 2 á föstudagskvöldi eða laugardagskvöldi, en fimmtudegi klukkan 23.45 og 2 bjórar þá var það erfiðar. En þetta var mjög flott tónlist og rokkaði í raun feitt og voru margir á dansgólfinu þar, enda dundi dansinn þar. Ég gef þessari stuttu veru okkar þar um 6,5 af 10 í einkunn og ef ég hefði verið þarna seinna á ferðinni um helgina þá hefði þetta fengið mun hærri einkunn. En Drum og Base er töff tónlist. Gaurinn hét London Electricity og er frá UK:
At a time when dark sounds and distorted basslines were a dominant force in the drum & bass music London Elektricity released its debut album, Pull the Plug in 1999, full of funk, uplifting grooves and soulful drum & bass sounds. The album, widely renowned as a benchmark in the drum & bass music, paved the way for the revival of more soulful elements of the music and what we today call "liquid funk drum & bass". Last year the follow up, Billion Dollar Gravy, was finally released featuring among others house music legend Robert Owens.
London Elektricity was formed in 1996 by Tony Colman and Chris Goss - but since 2002 it has been Tony's solo project, as Chris took on full time management of their successful Hospital imprint. The label, which has launched the carriers of artists like High Contrast and Cyantific, has been releasing some of the most exciting drum & bass music of the new millenium. Tony, which has been DJ-ing at every major d&b club in the UK and beyond, usually plays a good dose of exclusive and unreleased Hospital material when he performs - which we of course hope will be the case when he performs on the Breakbeat.is club on Airwaves.
Tony started his musical career in 1988 by forming the soul/jazzfunk band Izit. For the next seven years the combo toured the world's live and DJ scenes, secured a number 39 hit with their rare groove anthem "Stories" and released the classic acid jazz album; The Whole Affair. In 1992 Tony set up the Tounge and Groove label and year later Chris joined as label manager. After the T+G was disbanded in '95 the duo established two new labels, Hospital Records and Galactic Disco Music, which became platforms for their own house and funk music productions released under monikers like Orkestra Galactica, Future Homosapiens and Funky Nasa.
The last few months has seen London Elektricity remixing the Underworld anthem "Born Slippy" and releasing the Live Gravy DVD, featuring recently recorded live set at London's Jazz Café
Nú eftir þetta var förinni haldið aftur á Nasa, klukkan var rétt rúmlega miðnætti og við á leiðinni að sjá sænsku rokkprinsessurnar Sahara Hotnights (hafði reyndar séð smá af þeim á Roskilde fyrir mörgum árum):
They?re the quartet Rolling Stone named one of "10 Great New Bands" and praised for slamming out "Seventies-style rock that combines the pop rush of the Ramones with the pissed-off sneer of the MC5." They?re the group Spin called "foxy" and "super-badass," and cheered for coming on like "Sleater-Kinney busting the Runaways out of juvie and peeling off in a 1974 Camaro Z28." They?re the four young Scandinavian women that Blender applauded for taking "a blowtorch to the image of the icy, submissive Swedish pop girl (think Abba, Ace of Base, Cardigans)."
We?re talking, of course, about vocalist/guitarist Maria Andersson, drummer Josephine Forsman, guitarist Jennie Asplund and her bass-playing sister Johanna Asplund?a.k.a. Sahara Hotnights. Two years ago, the foursome crossed over to this side of the Atlantic and exploded on impact with Jennie Bomb, an incendiary album that provoked both action and reaction. They toured heavily in support, whipping audiences into a frenzy with a set that was raw, sweaty and absolutely electrifying. Night after night, the Saharas played to packed-house crowds filled with screaming girls that wanted to be them and awestruck boys that wanted to marry them (and sometimes vice versa).
Recorded in Gröndahl Studios in Stockholm, Kiss & Tell is Sahara Hotnights? third album and first for RCA Records. The band?s origin can be traced back to 1993, when the four pre-teen girls formed a kickass punk band in the pin dot of Robertsfors (population 2500) in the northern part of Sweden. In 1997, they released debut EP Suits Anyone Fine to local acclaim, and followed two years later with their pop-punk debut, C?mon Let?s Pretend. In addition to selling more than 55,000 copies in Sweden alone (gold is 40,000), the disc garnered widespread critical praise and two Swedish Grammy nominations. The band supported the album by touring all over Scandinavia, doing 120 shows in one year before heading back to the studio to make sophomore disc Jennie Bomb.

Fyrst þegar við komum inn fannst mér þetta svo sem ekkert sérstakt, en ég fikraði mig alveg fremst á hliðinni og hlustaði og horfði á þær tæta í gegnum nokkur lög og smá respect kom upp hjá mér, þetta var bara gott popprokk stelpu band. Eins og þeim hefur verið lýst þá eru þetta svona stelpuútgáfa af Ramones sem lýsir þeim ágætlega. Ég gef þei 6,5 af 10 og ástæðan fyrir lágri einkunn er nú aðallega að ég er ekki mikill popprokkari í mér, hefði viljað sjá meira Riot grrrrl element í þessu, minnti mig svolítið á hinu heitnu sveit Elasticu reyndar. En þar sem ég var svona so so ánægður með þetta þá vildi ég enda kvöldið á Ghostigital á Þjóðó og var haldið þangað um og upp úr hálf eitt. Við löbbuðum inn og fyrsta lagið var kynnt og við horfðum og hlustuðum á þessa snillinga. Þarna voru að sjálfsögðu Bibbi og Einar, en auk þess var Frosti úr mínus þarna, annar gítarleikari, sonur Einars og einn skífuþeytari. Þessir tónleikar voru hreint út sagt alger snilld, tóm hamingja og held ég að menn eins og Foetus, Ohgre ofl snillingar úr Noise Electronicu heimnum hefðu bara verði stoltir að sjá strákana ? þvílíkur kraftur, þvílík snilld, þvílíkt gaman. Þetta rokkaði, þetta dansaði, þetta var skrýtið, þetta var allt sem hægt er að hugsa sér í raun. Þeim sem fannst Einar vera skrýtinn þegar hann var í Purrkinum fengu staðfestingu á því, þeim sem fannst hann vera misskilinn snillingur í Purrkinum þeim fengu líka staðfestingu á því. Allt í allt var þetta í raun upplifun og finnst mér ótrúlega gaman að sjá þessa snillinga á sviði. Ég gef þeim 9,5 af 10 og skil eftir þennan hálfa ef ég myndi uppgötva óslípaðan demant á þessari hátíð. Þar sem ég er svo mikill aðdáandi þeirra þá ætla ég að setja upp allan textann sem stendur um þá á Airwaves síðunni.
Ex Sugarcubes member singer/poet Einar Örn teams up with fellow Icelandic sonic explorer Curver to create a grounbreaking blend of words, beats and sounds.
Following its acclaimed releases of Mali Music by Afel Bocoum, Damon Albarn, Toumani Diabate and friends, and The Hour Of Two Lights by Terry Hall & Mushtaq, Honest Jon's continues its coverage of contemporary world-music projects with the forthcoming album Ghostigital, by Icelandic singer/poet Einar Örn.
Recorded with fellow Icelandic sonic explorer Curver, Ghostigital is a groundbreaking blend of words, beats and sounds which draws on aspects of hip-hop, dub, electronic and industrial styles to create an appropriately other-worldly music which defies comparison with anything being created elsewhere in the world. The closest equivalent Einar and Curver could think of was the eccentric Guyanese-American rapper Sensational, once of The Jungle Brothers, so they asked him to contribute to a couple of tracks: the results make for a bizarre pan-cultural experience quite unlike mainstream hip-hop. "He's like the Captain Beefheart of hip-hop," they claim, adding "It's a new connection to World Music." Also along for the ride is Einar's eleven-year-old son Kaktus, whose jazz trumpet can be heard soaring across the album's opening track.
Einar will be best remembered for his work with The Sugarcubes, where his rapped exhortations served as a kind of running commentary on the lyrics sung by Björk, the group's focal point and future megastar. The Sugarcubes released four albums - Life's Too Good (1988), Here Today, Tomorrow, Next Week (1989), the remix album It's It (1992) and the splendid swansong Stick Around For Joy (1992) before disbanding the following year. During their brief career, they became a byword for adventurous independent pop, with an affinity for the eccentric and unexpected.
After The Sugarcubes broke up, Einar continued working on various fronts, as a journalist, poet and bartender, also helping out with the administration of the band's label Smekkleysa (Bad Taste), the outlet for just about every Icelandic musical development of any worth, from The Sugarcubes themselves, through Björk's solo work, to current indie epic-rock darlings Sigur Ros and hotly-tipped new band Minus. This summer, a prestigious exhibition, Lobster Or Fame, at the Reykjavik Art Gallery celebrated Smekkleysa's 15 years of Bad Taste, including the other artworks - from postcards to poetry - also published by the label. "It's still run by the same group of friends who started it," says Einar, "people who were involved in making music, and surrealist poets - it's the collusion of punk, surrealism, and production."
Einar's musical career began in the late '70s punk explosion, developing through pioneering early bands such as Purrkur Pillnikk and KUKL, before the latter became The Sugarcubes in 1986. Following their dissolution, Einar continued ploughing his own distinctive musical furrow, working with soundtrack composer (and Iceland's allsherjargodi or head pagan) Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson as Frostbite, then with Hilmar and fellow ex-Sugarcube Siggi Baldursson as Grindverk, before working on the soundtrack to the feature film ?101 Reykjavik? by Balthasar Kormakur featuring Victoria Abril.
The Ghostigital project seemed like a natural alliance of interests: Curver is an in-demand local producer whose production work rarely satisfies his taste for more extreme forms of music and noise, while Einar's tastes were formed in the original late-'70s electronic cyberpunk boom that spawned bands such as Suicide, Cabaret Voltaire and The Normal. Together, Einar and Curver devised their own form of "electronic beat music", drawing in elements of dub, hip-hop, rock and noise, always pushing the envelope further out whilst keeping an ear open for potential hits. Their first finished piece, 'Monday', reached Honest Jon's through Damon Albarn, a longtime friend (and now neighbour) of Einar's. "Damon told me he was setting up a label with them for the Mali Music record," explains Einar, "and suggested I supply them with a record. So we produced this one track to show them what we wanted to do, and they said yes, go ahead."
The results are quite unlike anything else you'll hear this year or any other, a sometimes chaotic-seeming flow of layered beats and sounds over which Einar muses upon some of the more crucial concerns of modern life, in a series of tableaux in which old shoeless men interrogate bank-tellers about the location of their money ('Bank'), abandoned pet rabbits roam free across Iceland's mossy lava-scape ('Calm Water'), insect-humanity replicates itself ('Thirsty Fly'), and words and meanings drift inexorably apart from each other ('Boink'). It is as mad as a bag of monkeys, but makes perfect sense in Einar's idiosyncratic worldview. After listening to Ghostigital you realize this is a a new fruit on the fertile tree of world music - that is: out of this world music.
Maybe one day, Einar Örn will appear on Pop Idol, and Simon Cowell's head will explode. Until that glorious moment, Ghostigital will have to serve as the most effective antidote available to the creeping sickness of modern corporate pop.
Einar Örn Ghostigital out on Honest Jons Records.
Allt í allt var þetta hið besta kvöld, góð skemmtun og góð byrjun á einni skemmtilegust helgi ársins, hefði viljað hafa fleir með okkur þessa helgi, en utanaðkomandi áhrif komu í veg fyrir það, en það er amk alltaf næsta ár.